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REVIEW: Legends Of Oz: Dorothy's Return

Since L. Frank Baum (writer of the original OZ) had a great grandson who decided to go into the family business and write an OZ story of his own, is how you get 'Legends of OZ: Dorothy's Return. It's a 3D-animated musical which appears to bring 'The Wizard Of Oz" into the current day.

Legends of Oz finds Dorothy (Lea Michele) waking to post-tornado Kansas, only to be whisked back to Oz (by a rainbow) to try to save her old friends the Scarecrow (Dan Aykroyd), the Lion (Jim Belushi), the Tin Man (Kelsey Grammer) and Glinda (Bernadette Peters) from a devious new villain, the brother of the Wicked Witch (the witches had a brother?) I guess she didn't like him and turned him into a court Jester voiced well by Martin Short. I didn't know he could sing that well! We know Lea Michelle can sing from Glee.

A couple of characters I haven't seen before Wiser the owl (Oliver Platt), Marshal Mallow (Hugh Dancy), Tugg the tugboat (Patrick Stewart) join Dorothy on her latest magical journey through the colorful landscape of Oz to restore order and happiness to Emerald City (which really got run down). What's cool about the music is it's the work of singer/songwriter Bryan Adams.

This one is more geared towards little kids. Story needs more work. But the 3-D is some of the best I've seen.